CHAPTER XII 



CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF CATS 



IF any of my readers hunger and thirst for informa- 

 tion concerning the descent of the cat through 

 marsupial ancestors and mesozoic mammals to the 

 generalized placental or monodelphous carnivora of 

 to-day, let them consult St. George Mivart, who gives 

 altogether the most comprehensive and exhaustive 

 scientific study to the cat ever published, and whose 

 book on the cat is an excellent work for the earnest 

 beginner in the study of biological science. He says 

 no more complete example can be found of a per- 

 fectly organized living being than that supplied by 

 the highest mammalian family — Felida. 



"On the whole," he sums up, "it seems probable 

 that the mammalia, and therefore the cat, descends 

 from some highly developed, somewhat reptile-like 

 batrachian of which no trace has been found." 



Away back in the eighth century of the Hegira, an 

 Arab naturalist gives this account of the creation of 

 the cat : " When, as the Arab relates, Noah made a 

 couple of each animal to enter the ark, his compan- 

 ions and family asked, 'What security can you give 

 us and the other animals, so long as the lion dwells 



